School Funds Fight Heads For Court

A number of Florida school districts say they are tired of waiting for the state to correct disparities in funding for education, so they are taking their battle to court.

Districts across the state are being asked to join a lawsuit to be filed in April that challenges the Florida Education Finance Program. So far, five counties have said they will join the suit, and about 20 are good bets to join.

The coalition of school districts, led by Hillsborough and Escambia counties, contend the funding program violates the Florida Constitution and state law because of inequities in the money school districts have to spend per student.

The constitution requires ''a uniform system of free public schools.'' State law carries that requirement a step further: Each student is guaranteed educational programs and services ''substantially equal'' to those available to students in other districts, regardless of location and local economic factors.

Poorer school districts say they can't provide educational programs equal to those in wealthier school districts.

In Central Florida the Seminole County School Board voted last week to join the suit, and Orange and Osceola counties are considering it. Lake County voted last week not to join.

The vote was unanimous in Seminole, where Carey Ferrell, assistant superintendent of business and finance, said the school district is losing about $100 per student or $7 million a year in state education money. Other calculations show Seminole's loss to be $8.5 million.

Had state money been distributed equitably, Ferrell said, Seminole wouldn't have needed to pass a $105 million bond issue last year to expand 41 of its 42 schools and buy land for a new high school.

Linda Robertson, finance director for Osceola County schools, estimates that district has been shorted $5.6 million over the past five years. In the past three years, funding has failed to keep up as enrollment rose 8 percent to 10 percent a year, she said.

Wallace Odom, the school finance director in Escambia County, has studied finances in the state's 67 school districts from fiscal 1978-79 to the present. During that time, he said, 54 of the 67 counties have been underfunded.

Odom and Escambia Superintendent Mike Holloway have no quarrel with the foundation of the state finance program, which establishes a base amount school districts receive for every full-time student. It is the supplemental funding programs and the Legislature's failure to apply formulas that equalize those programs that cause inequities, they said.

Equalization is important because some counties, particularly coastal counties in South Florida, have large property tax bases and relatively small enrollments. That means more money to go around.

Counties with relatively low tax bases and high enrollments have less money unless the Legislature makes adjustments in their funding.

''In order for some districts to provide the kind of funding for children with local revenue that others do, the Legislature would have to authorize them to raise millage rates much much higher,'' said Joe Marinelli, Orange County associate superintendent.

''Why should they have to tax themselves to death to get the same kind of dollars per child?''

Odom compares Collier County, with an enrollment of about 16,000 students, and Escambia County, with an enrollment of about 42,000. When the Collier County School Board levies 1 mill in taxes, it gets $424 per student. When Escambia levies the same 1 mill, it gets $84 per student. (A mill is $1 in property taxes for every $1,000 of non-exempt assessed property value.)

''We're talking about a substantial amount of money,'' Odom said. ''They have a lot more flexibility down there than we have.''

Holloway says the study also shows the disparities are widening among school districts.

''We feel every child in the state of Florida deserves the same opportunities,'' said Holloway.

Ray Shelton, the superintendent of Hillsborough County schools, called a meeting of superintendents, finance directors and attorneys from 12 Florida school districts Jan. 31 to discuss funding inequities and seek support for the lawsuit.

He said the suit is being filed ''out of desperation. It doesn't look like the Legislature is doing what the Constitution says. If we can't do it legislatively, we'll see what the courts say.

''It's been just a constant struggle for us, year after year. We've tried every other way -- this is the only way left to us.''

Some school districts, however, question the wisdom of suing the state.

''I feel very comfortable with the position the board took not to join in that suit,'' said Anna Cowin of the Lake school board. She said inequities should be resolved legislatively.